Same school, new tools

This is a generalization, of course, but some of us of a certain vintage consider those pesky hand-held gadgets favored by the younger generation to be digital distractions, nothing more than devices used by teenagers to relay gossip via text message.

[Karl Dziura]

Technology can facilitate education, but the enthusiasm of this article overlooks some very serious issues that result from its use. Reports of students using cell phones and social networking sites to engage in cyber-bullying are rapdily increasing and many children are suffering the consequences. Schools and teachers have no way to monitor the use of these two innovations. Cell phones have also been used for cheating on tests and their ubiquity in schools creates tension and distractions as teachers now have to govern their use, asking student to turn them off during class or having to detect and correct students who are texting for social reasons instead of being on task.
Furthermore, while most students own phones and access the web, those that do no often belong to the poorest among us. To the extent that schools encourage and even base educational activities on expensive, privately owned devices, the schools contribute to driving a larger wedge between haves and have nots.
Technology offers real potential, but whether that potential is positive or negative depends "on how we use it." Enthusiasm and encouragement have to be balanced with thoughtful policies that ensure the technology does not do more harm than good.

[RJD]

Yeah technology is definitely changing how us teachers interact with kids. We recently got some of these http://www.empvisualsolutions.com LED displays and this allows us to post information outside the school and these little http://www.empvisualsolutions.com/Products/In... LED signs allow us to post information outside the classrooms. We haven't been doing much blogging, but many of the students are using them and also Facebook and Twitter